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Title: eXistenZ (1999)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jennifer Jason Leigh | ... | Allegra Geller | |
| Jude Law | ... | Ted Pikul | |
| Ian Holm | ... | Kiri Vinokur | |
| Willem Dafoe | ... | Gas | |
| Don McKellar | ... | Yevgeny Nourish | |
| Callum Keith Rennie | ... | Hugo Carlaw | |
| Christopher Eccleston | ... | Seminar Leader | |
| Sarah Polley | ... | Merle | |
| Robert A. Silverman | ... | D'Arcy Nader | |
| Oscar Hsu | ... | Chinese Waiter | |
| Kris Lemche | ... | Noel Dichter | |
| Vik Sahay | ... | Male Assistant | |
| Kirsten Johnson | ... | Female Assistant | |
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James Kirchner | ... | Landry |
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Balázs Koós | ... | Male Volunteer |
Allegra Geller, the leading game designer in the world, is testing her new virtual reality game, eXistenZ with a focus group. As they begin, she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun. She flees with a young marketing trainee, Ted Pikul, who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. Unfortunately, her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game program, is damaged. To inspect it, she talks Ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her. The events leading up to this, and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure where reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game's perspective. Written by Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com>
"We're both stumbling around together in this unformed world, whose rules and objectives are largely unknown, seemingly indecipherable or even possibly nonexistent, always on the verge of being killed by forces that we don't understand." So says Ted Pikul in the film. Which for some people sums up life and 'eXistenZ' probably is a film about existence. What is real and what is unreal and how you tell the difference. Or not. The last line of the film is superbly ambiguous.
The film seems like a shaggy dog story (indeed it has a real shaggy dog in it) but it takes you along on an interesting ride, full of provocative Cronenberg touches that will make you look at amphibians, game pods, fish, spines and bones in a new light. Some bits are quite icky. It takes place in a rural setting where the gas station is called 'GAS STATION' and a Chinese restaurant is called 'CHINESE RESTAURANT.'The film has an engrossing texture that is leagues away from your usual big budget science fiction movie.You can read many things into the film and it repays watching more than once.
The main actors are Jude Law who is OK and Jennifer Jason Leigh who is great. Some roles don't suit this very talented actor but when she has a good role like this she is unmatchable. Her unconventional beauty and fascinating voice suits the part of Allegra. (Looks great in a short black skirt too.) There are other familiar actors but they are not given much to do. It looks good, sounds good and a Howard Shore score complements the film very well. Cronenberg is possibly the Alfred Hitchcock of the sci-fi/horror genre. No matter what film he makes he is always worth watching.